Group RVJAM | R.N.A./Viper/Jack/Arty/Matsu | Atsuko Scene Investigation

Viper

Viper wraps her arm back up- albeit messily, she makes a note to… fix that later.

Whatever.

She notices the footprints, and scowls. Is there… anything left of Atsuko’s feet? Enough to roughly guess if they were somehow her footprints or any size?

….Were they similar size to Viper’s own feet?

Also where did they seem to lead off to?

Narrator

Viper

One set of footprints seems to match Atsuko’s shoes from what you can tell. It pretty much leads straight from the interior of the island around to the front of the treevee.

The other set of footprints is weirdly difficult to make out, as if two people had stepped in the same spots. These stretch between a spot near Atsuko’s body and out to the shore, where they vanish.

The Atsuko prints are a little bigger than Viper’s. The weird doubled prints are more noticeably larger.

Arty Takenaka

Arty watches wordlessly as Viper and Jack go back and forth, about knives, about motive… she’s a little shocked to see that Jack has multiple knives—she’d only known about the one; what does he need multiple for?—but she reminds herself she’s not suspecting him right now. He wouldn’t be investigating this much if he did it, right? Didn’t seem like the type to bother putting up a front about it, especially since he’s been so blasé about people suspecting him thus far.

The idea of nominating someone as the potential killer just based on what they’ve found so far makes Arty nervous. It just feels way too soon. They only have some of the facts, and Arty still doesn’t even think any of them did it in the first place, anyway. “Yeah,” she finally speaks up, “I don’t think anything we have right now points to a specific person? And I still think that cat has the strongest motive. But we probably can’t even nominate him.”

She doesn’t have more to contribute to the conversation than that, so she goes back to watching, something that she immediately regrets once Viper starts… Doing That. Oh, god, she’s really getting in there, isn’t she? Arty can tell by the angle at which she’s holding her hand and yeah no that’s way too deep she needs to stop that right now. If Arty keeps watching this she’s gonna get queasy again. She would love any excuse to investigate elsewhere at this point.

Apropos of nothing, she’s going to wander on over to the nearest spot on the shore to where the fire happened. Any clues happen to be washed up on the shore or hiding in the shallow part of the water? Anything to legitimize this very important and necessary detour.

Narrator

Arty Takenaka

There doesn’t seem to be anything in the immediate vicinity, but she could swear she sees an unnatural gleam further out in the water…

Arty Takenaka

She deflates. You’ve got to be kidding.

With a sigh, she trudges back up to the others. She knows Viper can’t swim, but she’d probably die of embarrassment asking Jack directly. They’ve yet to acknowledge the whole life-saving thing, after all. How can Arty ask him for another favor when she still feels like she owes him for the first?

The conclusion she arrives to is that she must make no eye contact and address no one directly as she asks. “Hey—I think I see something weird in the water. Would someone be able to take a look? ’Cause it’s—further than I can, uh. Swim.”

Viper

Viper was so busy being totally normal and cool that she didn’t even really notice Arty had left the group- that was until she came back and decided to not-so-subtly ask someone to swim for her… and well, Viper wasn’t exactly able to swim herself. So she looks to the only one of them who she’s like 95% sure can swim.

….

“…Hey, Jack.” Viper fishes around in her pocket, finally pulling out her leftover quarter. “…Go take a look?” She asked, sooo nicely. Before winding back and pelting the coin out into the water, just hoping it landed close enough for the other shiny item to attract Jack’s attention.

You know, like a dog.

Roadie 🪶Jack

Viper may not have noticed Arty leaving the group, but Jack didn’t notice her coming back, either. Instead he was busy zoning out staring at a footprint (one of their own, even. Very useful to the investigation).

But he did belatedly register his name and looked up in time to see the quarter flashing. His head snapped sideways as he tracked the thing’s trajectory before turning back to blink at Viper again.

“Ya coulda just asked nicely.” If, y’know, he was remotely mentally present to hear you asking nicely. Sorry, Arty.

He briefly checked his bag to make sure everything was safe before shucking his hoodie onto the sand and diving out there with everything else still on. See you space cowboy…

After going out a ways—probably someone taller could have kept their feet on the sand still, but alas, no humans here fit that description—and vanishing under the water for a bit, he returned. Hands behind his back, he slogged his way over the last of the waves and sand trying to trip him up.

“Good news! You didn’t scare all the fish off after all!”

He flung his arms to the front to point a gun at Viper’s face and fire.

…

Or at least, pull the trigger with a little click. Nothing actually came out.

Viper

Roadie 🪶Jack “Ya coulda just asked nicely.”

“Eh, it’s like a solid 50/50 whether you’ll actually go, so better to be sure.” Viper replied with a shrug, watching as Jack wasted little time in wading out into the water. You know, she kinda hadn’t expected him to actually do it so willingly, but…!

Viper watched him intently as he dove under the water and surfaced again. There was something suspicious about the way he was walking back toward la-

OH HOLY F-CK THAT’S A GUN.

Her hands flew up as he pulled the trigger, shielding herself as she waited for the sound of a bullet and impending pain, but…

Viper slowly creaked open her eyes. (-When had she closed them?)

“JACK!” She scolded, “Why’d you point it at me!!!????!?”

Narrator

More properly, what he found was…

Gun - Some distance out in the surf. Contains nothing but a single spent cartridge. Bears some scorch marks near the muzzle. Looks the same as the one Taran received from the Gacha car.

Roadie 🪶Jack

Viper “Eh, it’s like a solid 50/50 whether you’ll actually go, so better to be sure.”

“Fair!”

Viper “JACK!” She scolded, “Why’d you point it at me!!!????!?”

Once he was eventually done cackling, he wrung his shirt out and tugged his hoodie back on, all without putting the gun away. At least he’d show them the chambers without objection if requested… if he could remember how to open up the cylinder again.

“Considered pointin’ it at myself, but it just wouldn’t’a had the same effect, yeah? People like you better.”

As if they had much of an audience left at this point…

Viper

Cw “game end” action ment

“Awwwh, Jack.” Viper pouted, whilst he wasn’t necessarily wrong… it still felt bad to hear someone say it. “I like ya. Even after ya stabbed me.”

…Sorry this is how you find out she got stabbed, Matsu.

“It’s like ya get me. Tha need ta be a lil’ trickster.” Viper shrugs. “Besides, nobody’s gonna be happy ta see someone almost blow their brains out.”

She glances off, seeing RNA and Arty leaving, before looking back.

“All this defendant sh-t… I dunno ’bout you but I wanna nominate the robot for sure.”

Roadie 🪶Jack

Viper

Viper “Awwwh, Jack.” Viper pouted, whilst he wasn’t necessarily wrong… it still felt bad to hear someone say it. “I like ya. Even after ya stabbed me. It’s like ya get me. Tha need ta be a lil’ trickster.”

Trying to figure out where best to stash the gun, Jack paused to squint at her for a second. He frowned and tugged at his gloves.

“…‘m just screwin’ around. You don’t gotta make it weird.”

Anyway.

Viper “Besides, nobody’s gonna be happy ta see someone almost […]

“You’d be surprised! ’s all kindsa people out there, y’know.”

Viper “All this defendant sh-t… I dunno ’bout you but I wanna nominate the robot for sure.”

Right, that was… yeah. The robot… Not like Jack had any better ideas. How about funnier? He was sure to fill one spot himself, but… His attempts to compile a list of the people here just got him some hazy images and a few snippets of memory that had the same chance of being real as not. He may have no longer been swimming, but his head sure was. He squeezed his eyes shut and reached for his water bottle.

“Yeah, sure, works for me.”

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